White Forest
White Forest is a major Resistance base located in the Outlands, north of City 17, used by the Resistance to build a rocket intended to shut off the Combine Superportal. Reaching the base is the first Episode Two main goal. Overview Features The base is installed in an aging Cold War base bought very cheap by Black Mesa to develop some projects in response to budgetary and oversight problems associated with basing all work in North America.The Orange Box Dissected - with Valve on ComputerAndVideoGames.com Most of the facilities are underground, but there are several bunker-like structures, a hangar, and a radio tower at surface level. White Forest is powered by generators and seems to be totally self sufficient. It contains two silos, the primary silo and the (mostly abandoned) secondary silo, both apparently designed to house a pair of intercontinental ballistic missiles. The silos have an alarm system which is triggered by movement. False alarms in the decrepit secondary silo are sometimes triggered often by nesting crows, and the structure suffers from the same decay as most of the Half-Life series' architecture. While the silos are used for research (mostly closing the Superportal with the rocket, the only known use), the storage areas are used for more normal means. They are used to store supplies such as food and ammo, and used as barracks for the Resistance personnel. An area also includes a small courtyard where training to the use of the Magnusson Device can be performed on a dead Strider installed on tracks. Certain areas of the base are above ground. These include the south and north entrance, linked by a garage for vehicles. The north entrance has a gate which can only be opened with a valve, and a watchtower. This area is totally walled off aside from the gate. A radar station is also set up above. The north entrance connects to a valley featuring small and larger buildings such as the sawmill, the cabin,The Orange Box Prima Guide and the lodge,The Orange Box Prima Guide each carrying important supplies and Magnusson Device teleports in anticipation of a Strider assault. The valley also includes two cranes, a water tower, and train tracks going inside sealed off tunnels. Research The research that takes place at White Forest is led by Doctor Arne Magnusson, one of the surviving Black Mesa Science Team members. Uriah, a Vortigaunt, is his research assistant. The subjects researched by White Forest include portals and stopping them, Superportals, and rocketry. White Forest's research was the key in stopping the Combine from overwhelming Earth with armies through a Superportal, like they did during the Seven Hour War. Personnel In addition to Magnusson and Uriah, there were some other Resistance personnel of note stationed at White Forest. One is MIRT, a mechanical handyman for the Resistance, and another is Sweepy, the Vortigaunt janitor of the base. Appearances Background Arne Magnusson had been operating a Resistance base at White Forest for an unknown amount of time before Gordon's arrival. In the years before the City 17 uprising, the White Forest personnel built an operable rocket in an old missile silo, with plans to launch it and use it to dissolve a Combine Superportal should a revolution take place. After arriving at the base, Isaac Kleiner and Eli Vance helped with the research as well. ''Half-Life 2: Episode One When Eli and Kleiner are seen during the monitor transmission at the start of the game, they are likely already at White Forest. Half-Life 2: Episode Two Soon after the uprising in nearby City 17 and the Citadel meltdown that follows, the Combine grow aware of the threat posed by White Forest and begin taking measures to destroy it. They first try to terminate Alyx Vance and Gordon Freeman, who are taking vital information about the Combine to the base, but fail when the couple is able to reach White Forest safely after driving through the Outlands. After Gordon and Alyx reach White Forest, the Combine try to halt the advances of the Resistance once more by breaching the base's secondary silo. While this set off the alarm, the staff at first think it is merely crows nesting. While the others prepare the data packed for viewing, Freeman is sent to the silo to investigate, until it appears that a real Combine invasion of the base is occurring. The Combine forces include Hunters, Overwatch Elites, Overwatch Soldiers, and Manhacks; an Emplacement Gun has also been installed in the silo. When Freeman successfully closes the silo doors and ends the Combines assault, Kleiner, Eli and Alyx Vance, and Freeman himself watch the data package, to realize Judith Mossman has found the ''Borealis, an Aperture Science vessel lost years prior, that the Combine has not yet located. As more Combine are arriving to attack White Forest, a final battle is to occur before the rocket launch. A single Strider is enough to destroy the rocket, so all Striders must be defeated. Freeman is trained in the use of the Magnusson Device, a powerful bomb deadly to Striders. He is then sent on the field with his Muscle Car, and fights Striders and Hunters with assistance from the White Forest Rebels, and finally defeats them all thanks to the Magnusson Devices, halting the Combine efforts once more and saving the rocket. Afterwards, Freeman gets back inside, the rocket is launched, and the Superportal is successfully closed. Soon after, Alyx and Gordon get ready to leave for the Borealis and rescue Mossman. As they walk with Eli to the hangar where the helicopter they will use is waiting, two Advisors appear and one of them kills Eli. Dog then suddenly appears to defend them, and fights off the Advisors, as Alyx mourns over her father's dead body. The screen then silently fades to black and the credits for Episode Two roll. Behind the scenes *White Forest is apparently based on one of the many abandoned Cold War bases located in Belarus and Ukraine. Textures, layout and signs were apparently reused with only a few changes. *According to Doug Wood, the team intended White Forest to offer a change of pace from the constant action that preceded it - a few moments to reunite with old friends and get to know Magnusson, a breather before the big battle ahead. However, their first version of the sequence was an accumulation of long scenes with a lot of dialogue. Gordon and Alyx stood around listening to Kleiner and Magnusson argue at the top of the rocket silo, then rode an elevator to the bottom of the shaft while Kleiner lectured them about rockets and satellites. They wandered into a control room to watch Mossman's transmission, and then hatched a plan to get her back. The team understood there was a problem when even the authors of the scene were bored, and no one had patience for the revelations that followed. So the sequence was divided into a number of smaller pieces that could be interleaved with solitary exploration and some combat. This required rebuilding the path and moving the control room upstairs, where the transmission scene became a reward for surviving the secondary silo part. Wood concludes that as a result of these changes, the White Forest experience is more varied, the narrative comes in digestible portions, and players are able to play at their own speed, rather than being led by the nose the entire time.Half-Life 2: Episode Two commentary In the second Episode Two teaser trailer released August 2006, the control room is still downstairs, and appears slightly different, and apparently with a direct view of the rocket silo.[http://store.steampowered.com/app/930/ Second Episode Two teaser trailer] Furthermore, the elevator along the silo is still used in the final game, but by Gordon alone. *In early Episode Two drafts, Eli and Kleiner had somehow warmed up White Forest all by themselves in the brief time after fleeing City 17. This seemed ridiculous for the team, so they developed the backstory of Black Mesa having bought the base before and created Magnusson, justifying all the work already done and the high amount of installations present when White Forest is first visited by Gordon. However these backstory details slowed down the game, so they were removed.The Orange Box Dissected - with Valve on ComputerAndVideoGames.com *Matt Scott stated about the scene during which the characters reunite in the rocket silo that the team found that the actors were constantly pushing the player around in order to get to their marks, due to the number of characters involved in the scene and the cramped spaces. So they developed scripts that allow the actors to gauge the position of the player and the other actors, and choose among a selection of marks. This solves the congestion problem and makes a scene feel more dynamic.Half-Life 2: Episode Two commentary *According to Matt Wright, the team designed Magnusson's rocket around blueprints from the Titan family of missiles instead of just making up something that fit their fantasies of a rocket. He adds that grounding the details of their world in reality, making them as precise as possible, makes the invented, fantastic elements seem that much more believable.Half-Life 2: Episode Two commentary *According to Kelly Bailey, the steam jet met at the foot of the rocket is an example of something the team calls a 'mechanic refresher'. It is meant to refresh the player's memory on how to perform a certain task they may not have used in a while. In this case, the team reminds the player about using valves to turn off steam in a relaxed environment. In the map just ahead, this trick will be fresh in their mind and they will be far more likely to realize they can use steamjets tactically when they encounter them in a combat situation.Half-Life 2: Episode Two commentary *According to Matt T. Wood, one of the team's main goals for the Hunter was to make the player feel vulnerable wherever hiding or not. The Hunter arena before the secondary silo became their testbed for improving the Hunters' close-combat behavior. A classic combat space, featuring multiple exits and many possible paths, the team tuned it for a strong cat-and-mouse gameplay experience. While players have many options for escape, the map is designed so that Hunters will never completely lose them - but always be able to pursue and flush the player out of hiding.Half-Life 2: Episode Two commentary *According to Richard Lord, the diagram explaining how to use the Magnusson Device against Striders went through several iterations, from highly stylized, to absurd, to something the team believed they could ship.Half-Life 2: Episode Two commentary *According to John Guthrie, the massive Strider battle was in production longer than any other map in Episode Two. Tuning it required many, many months of testing and iteration to address playtest feedback, and this was complicated by the fact that every time the team playtested, they saw individuals adopt completely different approaches to defeating the Striders. Some threw logs at Hunters; others relied on their Rebel companions to kill them. Some players never sprinted, while others never used the car. They tried to keep supporting all the different strategies that occured to players, so that their experiments with tactics would be rewarding rather than frustrating. Meanwhile, they had to make sure the Strider and Hunter behaviors were consistent, and balance the experience so that it would be a satisfying game experience for all different play styles at every skill level.Half-Life 2: Episode Two commentary *As seen in the Episode Two Gameplay Demo 5 released September 2006 and several early screenshots, the Strider battle was also to feature Overwatch Soldiers and Elites.[http://store.steampowered.com/app/937/ Episode Two Gameplay Video 5] *As seen in the Episode Two teaser trailer released July 2006,[http://store.steampowered.com/app/916/ First Episode Two teaser trailer] the second trailer released August 2006,[http://store.steampowered.com/app/930/ Second Episode Two teaser trailer] and several early screenshots, the Strider battle valley was to include at least two concrete bunkers. Freeman was to be chased inside one by a Hunter. They were partially kept as the main White Forest outdoor bunkers, in which no part of the final battle occurs. *According to Jon Huisingh, the team wanted players to use the Muscle Car as much as possible, both to move around the valley quickly and to run over Hunters as a quick and satisfying way of killing them. To encourage this, and to help with orientation problems, the team added a radar to the car which indicated the location of enemies. This made the car a more valuable tool in the battle and solved the navigation problem once and for all.Half-Life 2: Episode Two commentary *According to Ido Magal, one problem the team faced in the Strider battle map was that players would abandon their car in the heat of battle and were not be able to find it later. Given the time pressure and large scale of the map, some of these players could not succeed in protecting the base on foot. To address this they started by adding flashing hazard lights to the car, which helped when the car was in view, but they still saw players lose the car among the trees or behind hills. Eventually they added a vehicle locator to the HEV Suit so that players could find the car wherever it was.Half-Life 2: Episode Two commentary *According to Chris Chin, a great deal of work went into making sure players see the buildings get destroyed as they travel around the valley during the final battle. While the team cannot (and does not wish to) force the player to see these events, they tried to increase the odds that the player would end up in the best possible position for the show. Measures ranged from simply hiding a Strider behind rocks, to setting up complex logic conditions that must be met in order for the destruction to occur.Half-Life 2: Episode Two commentary *According to Joe Han, players under pressure can overlook basic tasks, so they try to make the important ones foolproof. On the Strider battle map, players often forget to check their health level, but rarely forget to seek out Magnusson Devices. They narrowed doorways and set health supply racks right by the entries, so that players rushing in to get explosives would find themselves automatically picking up vital supplies.Half-Life 2: Episode Two commentary *According to Tom Leonard, the Hunter's escort behavior includes specific formations and flanking strategies. The Strider battle valley environment was designed specifically to enhance those behaviors by providing cover and visually interesting paths. In this way the environment reinforces the design of the Hunter as stealthy, aggressive, and intelligent.Half-Life 2: Episode Two commentary *At the end of the second Episode Two teaser trailer, Kleiner can be seen in an humorous situation in the rocket silo at White Forest, saying "Mmhh... Now, that's interesting! I think we're getting somewhere!", then screaming when sparks spew from the rocket. This sentence/sequence is not featured in Episode Two; the scream is recycled from the scream Kleiner makes when Gordon appears behind him at the end of the teleportation failure at the start of Half-Life 2. The console Kleiner stands at is instead used by Magnusson, and is at a different place. Furthermore, no Vortigaunt can be seen on the level right below.[http://store.steampowered.com/app/930/ Second Episode Two teaser trailer] *In the base, an Easter egg referring to the TV series Lost can be found. In Uriah's lab, there is an inaccessible room containing a computer terminal with the six factors of the Valenzetti Equation shown on the screen and, on the wall, a Dharma-style octagon with the three pines from the White Forest logo in the middle. According to Steve Bond, many Valve employees are fans of Lost, and they noticed several strong Half-Life references in the first season of Lost. Gabe Newell and Lost creator J. J. Abrams exchanged e-mails, and Newell promised Abrams there would be a Lost reference in Episode Two, and this room was created.Half-Life 2: Episode Two commentary This being merely an Easter egg, the connection between the two universes is however not to be considered canon. Trivia *The Consoling Couple appears to have managed to leave City 17 alive, as it is seen through Eli's / Kleiner's office window when first going to visit Uriah. *If Gordon fails to defeat all the Striders attacking White Forest, the last one will destroy the White Forest antenna in a single shot. Afterwards, the message "The rocket has been destroyed - Magnusson's misgivings about the Freeman are completely justified. - The game now ends" is shown, and the game reloads. *There are several ''Orange Box'' Achievements related to White Forest: "Little Rocket Man", which requires to send the Garden Gnome into space by putting it with Lamarr in the opened rocket. Another is "Secondary Silo Secured", requiring to secure the launch doors in silo 2. Two achievements are related to the battle: "Neighborhood Watch" and "Defensive of the Armament"; the first one requires saving all the buildings outside White Forest and the second preventing the Striders from reaching the base. *It may or may not be a coincidence that the name "White Forest" is diametrically opposed to the name "Black Mesa". *The missile silo mirrors Black Mesa Research Facility rooms such as the Anti-Mass Spectrometer Test Chamber or the Tentacle chamber in the chapter Blast Pit. *Left of the rocket launch button can be seen the word "launch", with the "A" hidden with tape to make the word "lunch". *When Gordon first meets Kleiner and Magnusson in the rocket silo, Lamarr climbs into the rocket compartment after Kleiner releases her. If the player closes the door to the compartment, leaving Lamarr trapped, Kleiner makes a reference just before the rocket's launch to a "payload anomaly of approximately eight and a half pounds". Gallery Miscellaneous File:Hangar concept.jpg|Concept art for the hangar, featuring Alyx. File:Advisor WF hangar concept.jpg|Ditto, featuring an Advisor. File:Sign silo drm 01.png|A note left by Dr. Magnusson regarding abuse of the emergency override system. File:Outland basemap.png|Map of the White Forest surroundings. File:Overlay DWhiteForest.png|The custom Dharma + White Forest logo texture. File:Ep2 put iteminrocket.png|"Little Rocket Man" Achievement logo. File:Ep2 beat missilesilo2.png|"Secondary Silo Secured" Achievement logo. File:Ep2 beat outland12 nobuildingsdestroyed.png|Neighborhood Watch" Achievement logo. File:Ep2 beat game.png|"Defensive of the Armament" Achievement logo. Screenshots Pre-release File:Ep1 citadel 000035.JPG|Eli smiling to Alyx from White Forest while she puts her hand on the screen at the foot of the Citadel in Episode One. File:Kleiner eli screen different office.jpg|Kleiner and Eli in a different control room in the second Episode Two teaser trailer. File:Ep2 elites white forest beta.jpg|Early screenshot of Overwatch Elites during the battle, including one of the two cut bunkers. File:Jalopy back fridge.jpg|The Jalopy viewed from back during the battle in "Gameplay Demo 5". File:Strider about to fire trailer.jpg|Strider about to fire on the lodge in the second Episode Two teaser trailer. File:Hl2ep2 cinematicphysicsshack.jpg|The lodge being destroyed by the same Strider in the second Episode Two teaser trailer. File:Episode2-strider.jpg|Firing Strider in the first Episode Two trailer. Retail File:Outlands stream white forest.jpg|Stream in the Outlands, with the White Forest antennas in the background. File:White Forest entrance.jpg|White Forest's south entrance. File:G-man rocket.jpg|The G-Man appearing to Freeman. File:Mirt talking.jpg|MIRT talking to Alyx when first met. File:Ep2 outland 110001.jpg|Alyx hearing Magnusson's call. File:Ep2 outland 110001.JPG|Rebels watch monitors. File:Rebel magnade teleport.jpg|Rebel working on a Magnusson Device teleport. File:AR3.jpg|The AR3 dispute. File:AR3 zoom.jpg|The "AR3 guy". File:Ep2 outland 110022.jpg|Alyx and Eli reunited. File:Ep2 outland 110024.jpg|Eli wants grand kids. File:Ep2 outland 110028.jpg|Ditto. File:Ep2 outland 110029.jpg|Eli inspecting Alyx's wound. File:Ep2 outland 110035.jpg|A worried Alyx. File:Kleiner holding lamarr.jpg|Kleiner defending Lamarr from Magnusson's rants about her in the rocket silo. File:Ep2 outland 110045.jpg|Kleiner with the EMP Tool. File:Lamarr in the rocket.jpg|Lamarr hiding in the rocket. File:Gnome.jpg|The Garden Gnome put in the rocket. File:Magnusson rocket silo WF.jpg|Magnusson asking Gordon to investigate the secondary silo. File:Rocket silo.jpg|Below the rocket nose. File:Ep2 outland 110007.JPG|Rebel pulling a computer station near the rocket. File:Ep2 outland 110014.JPG|Computer station being pulled, seen from below the rocket. File:Ep2 outland 110010.JPG|The rocket's base. File:Ep2 outland 110016.JPG|Uriah noticing Gordon. File:Uriah working.jpg|Uriah working. File:Lost easter egg.jpg|The Lost Easter egg computer and logo on the wall. File:Emplacement gun white forest fired at.jpg|Gordon being fired at by Overwatch Soldiers in silo 2. File:Emplacement gun white forest fire.jpg|Firing at Overwatch forces with the Emplacement Gun while silo 2's hatch is closing. File:Silo 2 secure.jpg|Silo 2 secured after a Combine breach. File:Uriah alyx silo 2.jpg|Uriah and Alyx after Silo 2 is sealed by Freeman. File:Ep2 outland 11b0057.JPG|The EMP Tool plugged in to deliver Mossman's message. File:Ep2 outland 11b0070.JPG|The G-Man appearing to Alyx to trigger his message to Eli. File:Strider Buster introduced.jpg|Magnusson introduces his device. File:Magnade storage1.jpg|Rebels in the Magnusson Device storage room. File:Magnade storage2.jpg|Ditto. File:Magnade training1.jpg|Magnusson and Uriah training Gordon. File:Magnade training2.jpg|Ditto. File:Magnade training view.jpg|The rebuilt Strider. File:Ep2 outland 120033.jpg|MIRT showing Gordon what he did to the Muscle Car. File:Ep2 outland 120017.jpg|Magnusson Device teleports near White Forest's north entrance. File:Outland building magnade.jpg|The lodge. File:Ep2 outland 120002.jpg|The water tower. File:Ep2 outland 120001.jpg|The sawmill. File:Ep2 outland 120000.jpg|White Forest sign. File:Ep2 outland 120006.jpg|The cabin. File:Ep2 outland 120005.jpg|The cranes. File:StriderBusterKill.jpg|Magnusson Device destroying a Strider. File:Ep2 outland 120031.jpg|White Forest's north entrance. File:White forest fail.jpg|The antenna exploding if Gordon fails. File:Ep2 outland 12a0065.jpg|Magnusson actually congratulating Gordon for protecting White Forest, while Alyx does not believe her ears. File:Ep2 outland 12a0073.jpg|Ditto. File:Ep2 outland 12a006008.jpg|Alyx's reaction to the thanks. File:Ep2 outland 12a0082.jpg|Alyx and Eli waiting for Gordon to launch the rocket. File:Ep2 outland 12a0091.JPG|Kleiner showing Gordon the rocket l(a)unch button. File:Ep2 outland 12a0100.jpg|Magnusson enthused by the success of the rocket launch. File:Ep2 outland 12a0108.jpg|Alyx and Eli watch as the Superportal is shut off. File:Ep2 outland 12a000000.jpg|Eli kissing his daughter shortly before dying. File:Combine Advisor Ep2.jpg|One of the Advisors attacking Eli, Alyx and Gordon. File:Alyx eli spoiler.jpg|Alyx kneeling over her father's dead body. List of appearances *''Half-Life 2: Episode One'' *Source Particle Benchmark *''Half-Life 2: Episode Two'' Notes and references Category:The Outlands locations Category:Resistance locations Category:Half-Life 2: Episode Two Category:Locations Category:Jeremy Bennett designs